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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Legal action - kid kicked football into baby

82 replies

CreatingADream · 12/04/2017 11:50

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4403936/Baby-hit-head-ball-Chelsea-star-s-park-kickabout.html

Say what? Surely you'd just chalk this down to normal childhood accidents in a park...

OP posts:
Original poster
CreatingADream · 12/04/2017 15:12

Cool

You can't pay for emergency medical care in London for a suspected head injury - it is NHS only.

No private services provide accident and emergency facilities in London.

OP posts:
Original poster
CreatingADream · 12/04/2017 15:14

Why was the mother allowed to leave the hospital with a baby that had concussion, partial paralysis and suspected brain damage?

That just doesn't add up - no medic in their right mind would allow that mother to take her baby out of hospital.

OP posts:
Original poster
CreatingADream · 12/04/2017 15:18

And she seems to think her son is well enough to be taken for photographs in the park for the articles.

Not exactly the actions of a fraught mother who thinks their baby has brain damage after a ball 'smashed his left temple'.

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TabascoToastie · 12/04/2017 15:20

I guess you didn't read the original article, CreatingADream? She took the baby to NHS A&E who diagnosed a concussion and released him. The next day he was still unresponsive and had paralysis so she took him to the GP. The GP recommended further investigation and monitoring and this is what needed to be done privately.

If my baby had suffered a concussion, was unresponsive days later, had paralysis and possible brain damage and the NHS's reaction was to send him home and wait and see, I'd absolutely get him into the first private apt I could find even if I had to go turn tricks on the street to pay for it.

TabascoToastie · 12/04/2017 15:25

Why was the mother allowed to leave the hospital with a baby that had concussion, partial paralysis and suspected brain damage?

That exact thing happened to me, actually. Within just my own family and my best friend's family I could give you about 5 incidents of the NHS saying "we'll monitor it, wait and see" or "it's probably just stress and depression" about things that turned out to to be either serious illness or potentially fatal.

The NHS are so badly underfunded a conscious child likely would not be kept in for the level of investigation a private hospital could provide. And from my own experiences of concussion sometimes people really do seem fine at first.

Wells20 · 12/04/2017 15:28

My 4 year old DS had an asthma attack a month ago that required an ambulance. He's never had an asthma attack before.

Doctors put him on a nebuliser and gave him steroids then sent us home for monitoring.

He was bluelighted to A&E 5 hours later.

Sent home 90 minutes after that again for monitoring.

I can believe it.

Original poster
CreatingADream · 12/04/2017 15:28

I read both the articles - concussion is usually an overnight stay (at least), even in an 'overstretched NHS hospital' (the only hospitals that deal with emergencies and head injuries).

You cannot be admitted to a private hospital with a head injury / in an emergency - they do not accept these patients as they do not have the facilities to care for them.

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TheFairyCaravan · 12/04/2017 15:29

I've read the article in The Scum and the one in the Fail.

The one in The Scum suggests the baby has paralysis of his right hand and an outside chance of brain damage. The multiple photos accompanying the article show the baby making a fist with his right hand, holding his mum's arm with his right hand, and his right hand out stretched so I'm a tad confused.

What I don't understand is why A&E didn't pick up on this, why her GP never picked up on it, and if a private paediatrician has picked up on it why hasn't he had a scan yet? Surely that's needed as a matter of urgency, not when the mum has done all her press calls?

None of it makes sense to me.

Of course the ball should have been put away as soon as the baby and his mum arrived but I do think this is a huge overreaction.

Original poster
CreatingADream · 12/04/2017 15:30

Exactly.

Paralysis - a sign of brain bleed would be bluelight and straight to scanner as a code red.

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TabascoToastie · 12/04/2017 15:34

concussion is usually an overnight stay (at least)
Not in my experience of three separate incidences of concussion.

You cannot be admitted to a private hospital with a head injury / in an emergency
It wasn't an emergency - it was subsequent days. And yes private hospitals absolutely do investigate problems caused by head injury, again first hand experience.

Paralysis - a sign of brain bleed would be bluelight and straight to scanner as a code red.
Presumably the right hand paralysis wasn't noticed until the next day.

TheMysteriousJackelope · 12/04/2017 15:45

If the baby is half paralyzed due to brain damage, the lawsuit makes sense. She may need to pay for physio therapy, special education services, speech therapy (if the brain damage affected his speech centers), wheel chairs, adaptions to their home. I don't know if she has enough evidence of the extent of the brain damage to really assess what the future costs are likely to be though.

Having brain damage doesn't mean someone can't have their photo take or go outside.

user1492007682 · 12/04/2017 15:46

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Original poster
CreatingADream · 12/04/2017 15:49

Tabasco Please link me to a private hospital in London that provides Accident and Emergency care for babies with head injuries.

Of course it as an emergency (head injuries, you should know this with your three separate incidents of concussion), and if he has developed paralysis it would still be being treated as an emergency.

OP posts:
Original poster
CreatingADream · 12/04/2017 15:50

Presumably the right hand paralysis wasn't noticed until the next day.

Regardless, it would still be treated as blue light to hospital and red code to scanner, even if it was the next day. Blood clots can be fatal.

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PetyrBaelish · 12/04/2017 15:51

If the baby turns out to have lasting brain damage, and the footballer who was encouraging his SD to play football in a no ball games area is earning such an obscene amount of money, he should pay for the baby to have private medical treatment, at the very least - it will be a drop in the ocean for him.

It doesn't sound like the baby will have brain damage though, so she's just getting a bit of money from publicity. Depends how well off she is, if she is struggling most people would probably do the same.

TabascoToastie · 12/04/2017 15:54

The woman took him to see a private pediatrician because she was concerned that he was still unwell in the days following the injury

Find me a link that says she took him to "private A&E?"

Wells20 · 12/04/2017 15:57

I jjst find it a bit odd that a baby of 6 months old was hit by a ball, and may or may not have lasting damage but someone who has read 'both reports' has decided on the basis of that that he was not sick enough to be seen a few times by medical professionals and that the mother is overreacting because clearly she is after the moolah.

Wells20 · 12/04/2017 15:58

Could we all just not say ; Gosh. Hope the child is okay and the right thing -whatever that is- is done by all concerned?'

ILookedintheWater · 12/04/2017 15:58

She isn't struggling, she's the wife of an investment banker and lives in a multimillion pound house, but that isn't actually the point. She's taken her baby to a private paediatrician for a second opinion and wants them to pay. They should pay. Going to the tabloids was horrid of her (and unnecessary) but someone with her lifestyle was never going to stick with the NHS opinion, especially as she was concerned that the baby was too quiet.

Original poster
CreatingADream · 12/04/2017 16:01

You seem to be missing the point.

Paralysis in the days after a head injury is a medical emergency. Therefore any doctor (private or NHS) would have had that baby blue lighted to an NHS hospital Accident and Emergency, where the baby would have be red coded and fast tracked to a scanner.

It's not a case of "Oh your baby had a head injury, let's just wait a few days for a scan even though he's developed paralysis". That would be GMC license ending for the doctor.

You said, from your own experience that private hospitals do treat such cases - it is absolutely not the case. They may be involved in follow up / rehabilitation care down the line once all medical emergencies have been dealt with, they do not deal with sudden onset paralysis after a head injury in a six month old baby.

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TabascoToastie · 12/04/2017 16:08

I bet any amount of money if someone started an AIBU saying, "My baby suffered a head injury and concussion but A&E sent him home, he's still poorly, should I book an appointment with our pediatrician for a second opinion?" every single poster would say 'yes of course do it this second!!!' and probably share their own NHS horror stories.

Yes, of course she could have made a second trip to A&E if she'd wanted to. But she didn't. Who are you to dictate what medical decisions a mother chooses for their ill baby? We weren't there and we can't know what happened during the first A&E visit that made her decide she'd prefer a different hospital.

NotCarylChurchill · 12/04/2017 16:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
CreatingADream · 12/04/2017 16:12

Tabasco Again you miss the point.

You cannot be treated for sudden onset paralysis post a head injury in a private hospital because it is a medical emergency and no private hospital in London has the facilities or resources to treat complications following a head injury that are life-threatening emergencies (I know this, I live and work in the area).

If a mother took her baby to a private hospital or a private GP or an NHS hospital and said "my baby has developed paralysis after a head injury two days ago" the outcome would be the same - the baby would be transferred to an NHS Accident and Emergency (probably St Mary's) and have an immediate scan.

It's not the mother's choice at that point - it's the only choice.

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Wells20 · 12/04/2017 16:14

Not sure it is Tabasco missing the point tbh.

TabascoToastie · 12/04/2017 16:18

But none of us know anything about the case or the circumstances, we aren't privvy to the medical records, we don't know exactly what was done or where. So how can you say with such confidence that the baby could not possibly have been taken to see a private paed and therefore the mother is faking?